Wednesday, August 28, 2013

After finishing my painting at Mountain Lake and cooling off with a refreshing dip (see my last post) I continued up the road that leads to the top of Mt. Constitution.

Map of Moran state Park

Mt Constitution is the highest point on the Island and features sweeping vistas of the surrounding Islands and The Straights of Juan De Fuca

The original land for Moran State Park was donated to the state in 1921 by Seattle mayor and shipbuilder Robert Moran. Due to poor health, Moran moved to Orcas Island and between 1906 and
1909 built his estate, naming it Rosario. Today, the former Moran estate
is Rosario Resort and Spa . It is the largest resort in the San Juan Islands and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Island View in progress

Before getting to the top a stunning view of the distant Islands across some beautiful meadows stopped me. I hopped out to take a few pictures.... and had to pull out my gear and do a painting! This painting sold rather quickly at the Moran exhibition held by Crow Valley Pottery at the end of our trip.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

The second day of the San Juan Island painting trip found me back up at Mountain Lake to catch the morning sun.

BTW, this trip was part of a Plein Air Washington Painters collaboration with Crow Valley Pottery to celebrate and support Moran State Park on Orcas Island . At the end of the week a gallery show was held at Crow Valley and a portion of the sales were donated to the park. The show included studio paintings and the wet plein air work done during the week, of Moran and other state parks.

What I am doing now...is a job for me....and ...it's a lot of hard work!! But I have to admit,...it's the best job I have ever had!! See attached videos below....=]

Friday, August 16, 2013

Living in Kitsap county in the Pacific Northwest means that your travel off the peninsula is bound by the ferry schedule. To get to the paintout in the San Juan Islands required taking two ferries , I chose to take the Kingston Ferry to Edmonds and then drive up to Anacortes taking another ferry to Orcas Island. Knowing that I would be in line way early for the 3:50 pm sailing, I decided to pre-funk the party and do a painting at the ferry landing in Anacortes.

Mt Baker , easel failure

Everything was great! I had a beautiful view of Mt Baker and about two hours to do a painting...but....it was windy! About three quarters of the way through the painting a gust of wind started to blow over my easel....
I reached out automatically and grabbed it causing a big splash of turpentine to wash over the wet work! Sheesh! If it's not one thing it's another in this plein air business!....But ,

I'm not complaining!.. and I got over it quickly ..after all , I had four days of painting in the San Juan Islands to look forward too and it turned out to be an amazing and fun trip! This one got packed away to dry and I finished it up when I got home ....none the worse for wear....=]

Ferry to Orcas Island

The adventure was now really under way, with a painting already under my belt.. We had gorgeous weather the whole time and the ferry ride itself is a treat worth the time!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

This is one of those paintings that got lost in the shuffle...Here's the story...I painted it awhile back and was never really satisfied but let it go to the gallery anyway because I needed to fill a show..(bad idea, but it happens to all of us) It sat in the gallery for a month and didn't sell....finally the gallery owner, a sweetie, fessed up that she didn't think the ferry boat was painted with the same quality as the rest of the painting .....So, took er back and repainted the ferry boat .....I think it's better?

Night Ferry inferior

I got up at 5am this morning to work on organizing my photos so I can design and order my calendars ....and get Derek some photos to upload to my new website (Derek the Awsome is doing it for me..=])
I came across this painting and forgot the size , noticed I didn't post it yet (which is how I find sizes when I forget....unless I forget to post.....!!) so.....now it is posted! with an approximate size (the original is at The Bluewater Gallery).....and now you know.....

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Just a quick one today to post the other two paintings I did with my artist friends Darrell Anderson and Tim Deibler. As you can see it was a beautiful, sunny, summer day in the Pacific Northwest and Seattle is visible in the distance across Elliott Bay.

"Power Boat" 8x10 oil on panel Sold

I simplified this scene way down and just concentrated on one boat and it's reflection in the water...

Thanks for visiting! I will be moving on to my trip to the San Juan Islands in coming posts.....with more videos!!....=] Cheers!

Thursday, August 08, 2013

Friend and painting buddy Darrell Anderson called me to go painting with him at Prichard Park on Bainbridge Island with fellow painter Tim Deibler. Tim was in town from Colorado teaching a workshop and wanted to do a warm up at the location. Darrell was nice enough to invite me along! Tim is a great painter and a fun guy to paint with!

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

The last plein air painting I did at Dosewallips State Park shows the Olympic Mountain Peaks known as The Brothers. A good wrap up to a great weekend!

Skipping a few segments of the video series, (where I work on an 18x18 plein air piece down on the river), I will get to the last one and then post a picture of the final result of the whole process ......A totally different subject being painted over the work which I was never satisfied with..

I spent three days on location with this painting and then took it back to the studio and worked on it some more...I was never able to bring it to a level I thought was frameable. ...so I waited until it was dry , sanded it lightly and used it for an interesting under-painting for another work...Some of the older painting peaks through and adds some sparkle.

original PA painting

"Yellow House" in progress

I turned it upside down before painting over it so as not to be distracted by the original image.